If you are looking at credit, or are worried about it, you need to check your credit report and get a FICO score. The government has mandated the credit bureau’s to give out free credit reports once a year through the portal annualcreditreport.com. If you want to know your FICO score or get credit monitoring, I suggest myfico.com.
The credit scores from the three main guys do not give an accurate representation of what your score is. They use an internal scale, so you could have a 720 score from say Experian, but its really 650 on the Fair Isaac scale, which is what matters.

The more you know!

Ok does anyone else think its ridiculous that wall streeters are claiming the widows and orphan defense? Are orphans really impacted by the dividend not being released? Its profit from a corporation, if there is no profit, there is no dividend!

Great information, I have been looking for actual numbers on how your credit is affected.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — If you’re delinquent on your mortgage, your credit score will suffer. Everyone knows that. The question is, by how much?

Until recently, those answers were hard to come by. Credit bureaus were uncommunicative about expressing, in points, just how much impact different foreclosure types of mortgage delinquencies have on scores.

Recently, Fair Isaac, which developed FICO scores, pulled back the curtain a bit, revealing some estimates of point-score declines following mortgage delinquency problems.

Here are the average hit your credit will take:

30 days late: 40 – 110 points

90 days late: 70 – 135 points

Foreclosure, short sale or deed-in-lieu: 85 – 160

Bankruptcy: 130 – 240

To come to these figures, Fair Isaac created two hypothetical consumers, one who starts out with a fair-to-middling score of 680 and the other with a very good one of 780. (FICO scores range from 300 to 850.)

The hypothetical person with the 780 FICO has 10 credit accounts versus six for the 580, plus a longer credit history, lower utilization of total credit limit and no missed payments on any account. The other consumer has two slightly damaged accounts. Neither have any accounts in collection or adverse public records.

See the chart above to see how each scenario affected each borrower.

Notice that for both borrowers a single one-time black mark results in steep drops, but it is when they fall further behind that things get really harsh, according to Craig Watts, a spokesman for Fair Isaac.

“The lending industry tends to regard an account differently when it has become 90 or more days late,” he said, “The likelihood that consumers will resume paying their overdue obligations drops off significantly after the delinquencies have reached 90 days.”

One reason credit companies were so closed-mouthed is that they often can’t definitively state how much each delinquencies will affect scores because there are too many variables.

Some borrowers will fall much more steeply than others for the same payment problem, according to Maxine Sweet, vice president for public education at Experian, one of the nation’s main credit bureaus.

“If you picture someone who has just one mortgage and one other credit account versus a mature credit user like me with 15 accounts, if they miss one payment that would impact their scores a lot more,” she said. “For me, one missed payment would just be a blip.”

The point loss also depends on the borrower’s starting point: People with very high credit scores have more to lose than low-score borrowers; the impact of a single blemish on an 800 score is more than on a 500.

Of course, it just gets worse when you face foreclosure.

Mortgage borrowers can lose their homes three basic ways: a foreclosure; a short sale, where the home is sold for less than than is owed and the bank (generally) forgives the difference; or a deed-in-lieu, in which the borrower gives back the property and the bank again forgives any unpaid balance.

Sweet said credit bureaus generally slash scores equally for those three resolutions to someone losing their home. The important factor, she said, is that “it’s reported that you paid less on a settled account.”

Some borrowers may think that because they never missed a payment, they can “walk away” from their homes with relatively little impact on scores. Not true. “When a deed-in-lieu or short sale is reported as a partial payment, it’s treated as a serious delinquency,” Watts said, “just like a foreclosure.”

Even if borrowers made payments faithfully for years before short selling or doing a deed-in-lieu, their credit score will still take a hit. The total decline will run about 85 points for the 680 score borrower to as much as 160 for the 780 score.

Mortgage debt, combined with other financial problems, can send borrowers into bankruptcy, the worst thing that can happen to your credit score.

The effects are long-lasting, according to Sweet. In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which involves partial repayment over several years, the stain will take seven years to remove. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which involves liquidation, takes 10 years to get over.
It’s gonna cost you
Absorbing a big credit-score hit can make many transactions more costly. It’s not just paying more for credit card debt and auto loans, insurance can cost more as well.

The average savings for someone with a good versus mediocre credit score is about $115 a year for auto insurance and $60 for home, according to Loretta Sorters, of the Insurance Information Institute.

A low credit score can even make it harder to rent a home because landlords often use credit scores to weed out prospective renters.

Despite the problems a poor credit score can cause, Experian’s Sweet recommends that people who are in financial dead ends, like totally unaffordable mortgages, it’s better to recognize that and cut your losses quickly; don’t prolong the problem.

“You need to do what you need to do to get your finances back in order,” she said. “Don’t worry about your credit score.

How foreclosure impacts your credit score – Apr. 22, 2010.

What are we to do America? Come on, think! We have some of the brightest people in the world, undoubtedly the most successful businessmen.

The commercial real estate market is falling right now, so I could forsee in the next year rents dropping dramatically for retail space, are you thinking about starting up a small business? Now is the best time ever to do so. Consumers are spending, there are alot of qualified people looking for work, and rents, well you can negotiate that to a 6 month freebee with tenant improvements!

So maybe thats the ticket, start your small businesses. What about financing you say, well yeah that is a huge concern. There are ways to get capital, the SBA is creating a waiting list for loans, micro-lenders are popping up, I know two off the top of my head that are lending to new business entrepreneurs.

Lets get a move on, there are great resources out there like Club Entrepreneur, which meets all the time. SCORE.org can help you get started, sba.gov.

I am going to start writing about my journey into a residential re-hab business. It can be a great business to be in, there is alot of work but the rewards are there.

Stay tuned, and for now, start a business! Entrepreneurs are the answer.

My second favorite site is Yahoo Finance. They have a crazy amount of historical data available for free. You can also use the current trending tools to see which stocks are taking a beating or rising fast during the day. This is accessible under the investing tab, then market stats.

There is always of course the Wall Street Journal, most of the information is free but there is some content that is pay only.

Other sites I check occasionally are the Motely Fool.com, Cnn Money, and Barrons.

Two magazines I read every month are Money and Smartmoney. Money is more geared towards the average person trying to make it and have a comfortable retirement. Smart money is a lot more stock market and company oriented. They compliment each other very nicely, and they are cheap subscriptions.

If you are researching a specific company, check their website in the investors section, or go right to the SEC and search the archives for financial reports.

If you are a TV person like me, there is a show that many have heard of, Jim Cramers Mad Money. Its on every night at 6PM EST on CNBC. Cramer is a great finance mind with a lot of information to share with the individual investor (he can be a little crazy). Cramer advocated 1 hour a week per stock you own if you purchase stocks directly.

The little advice I can offer is to save as much as you can since it will never hurt you!

You most likely have done it; Google yourself! Type your name with quotes “a name” and see what comes up. Try all the different varients of your name. Use a different search engine too, they all have different results. A couple things that might show up, old message board postings, companies you have worked at, and organizations you are affiliated with. Google groups also keeps track of every usenet posting from the beginning of time. Be careful what you post!

Find out where you live. Try the major sites like whitepages.com, switchboard.com, yahoo white pages. Use a search engine to find other white pages. Most of these sites offer a way for you to remove your information, it isn’t a bad idea to remove as much as possible.

See your credit report. If you are a U.S. resident, you can get a copy of your credit report from the three major credit agencies once a year. So its a good idea to get one report every four months so you can keep a good look all year. The site is annualcreditreport.com.

See what your insurance companies look at. There is a company called Choicetrust that all the major insurance companies report to. Any accident you have ever had, claim on your house insurance, even if it is small will show up on their system. You can get a free copy of your report and hopefully see why your insurance rates are so high. The report you need is a C.L.U.E report. You can get one online through the website. They have personal property and auto reports. Each of these are free every year.

Run a background check. There are tons of sites that offer cheap background reports, A site that seems legit is Intelius. You can run background checks, cell phone checks, social security checks, etc.

There is a great deal of free information online through your local township or city websites. Most of the time you can search through your property reports and get tax info, purchase prices, and typically a picture of the house and its layout. Check sites like zillow.com to get information about everyone around you.

Check the social sites like myspace.com, youtube.com, and facebook.com. Run a search for your name, you never know what might show up. Check the online dating world, like match.com or yahoo personals to see if someone has posted anything on you.

Classmates.com is a resource that many people don’t realize gives away a great deal of information.

If you find any incorrect information on your credit report, or insurance reports, fix them asap. There are a ton of documented procedures for fixing these things, so just do some searches.

Hopefully this gives you a little insight into your online self, happy searching!

Note: I am not a lawyer, before doing this, you should consult a business lawyer to determine what the best type of corporation to start for your needs. LLC’s and Class C corporations are not for everyone. A Partnership might be best, etc. Do not take my advice as fact..

With that said, if you are starting a small business and do not plan to sell shares of your company, you can start a Limited Liability Corporation or LLC. This allows the income from the company to flow through to the owners, or members as they are called. In Michigan you are allowed to have a one member LLC, so you can open this by yourself. When it comes to tax time, you fill out a few more forms and the income is added to your personal taxes. The LLC gives you the protection of a Corporation by keeping the business operations separate but having income flow to you. The members must be careful to keep all accounting separate in case a disagreement comes up. This goes as far as having a separate business computer system if you work from home, a business checking account, credit card, etc. There are different types of LLC’s, so research the one you may need. If you are a non-profit, professional services, etc there are different forms to fill out.

My steps here will be for a single member Domestic LLC which should cover the majority of businesses.

There is a great guide online with the more information here. There are a great deal of things to think about like federal and state taxes, and if you have employees it gets more complicated.

To get started, search to see if your kind of business requires a license here. If you are running a service, most require state licensing. You can apply for licenses here at MI TAPS.

The first step to creating your corporation is to name it! You can search the current business names online at Michigan.gov Business Lookup. This site is also great if you want to research a local company and see who owns it, etc.

Once you have determined a name and checked that no one else has it, you need to send in an Articles of Organization form which specifies the members and the business name to the state. Follow all the instructions and get it right! The fee will be payed through your MICH-ELF account described below.

The process for sending forms into Michigan is through the MICH-ELF system. This is a fax based system where you create an account, and can fax in most forms. The information is available here. You can use email to send in forms with FILEonline once your ELF account is established.

Once the state accepts your Organization, they will fax back the OK. You now have an LLC!

The next step is to create a federal ID tax number to keep it separate from your social security number. You can register for federal EIN here. You should consult your attorney or accountant before making some of those tax decisions in that form, they can have implications down the road.

Once you have an EIN, you then must register for Michigan taxes online, so you can purchase tax free, then charge customers sales tax. You will then receive a tax license. After that you must file with the state the amount of taxes you expect to charge, and if its over a certain amount, you will have to pay them up front. Read up on the ETF payments for taxes, it makes your life easier. Make sure to read up on this as much as possible. Don’t get caught by not paying up!

After you have completed your EIN you have the business setup. The sales tax portion takes longer, so you need to wait if you are purchasing products. You can register for a business checking account, credit card and start finding suppliers. If you are serious about this, you might need a DUNS number which is what other businesses look at; it is your businesses credit report. The cheap version is $299.

The various state taxes, unemployment, social security, etc can overwhelm you. Just read through them all, and hire an accountant to help with the details.

Make sure to file your state taxes (whatever the timing you need based on income), and yearly articles of organization with the state to keep your business! They will send out a mailing once your articles are due.

It is also a good idea to look into trademarking your business name and logo when you create it. You can do this at the state and federal levels. State information is here, and the federal information is at the USPTO website.

Good luck and I hope you succeed!

Some things to note:

• Check for yearly “maintenance” fees. Just about any good card will be free.
• Check the monthly interest cycle, for example Visa usually charges a two month interest daily balance cycle, which means you pay interest for two months if you couldn’t fully pay one month off. MasterCard and AMEX are typically just one month cycles.
• If you’re going for a no interest for X months on a balance transfer or purchase, make very sure that you do not get penalized for making additional purchases. Some companies love to pay off the new balance before the old balance, thus you get charged lots of interest. These cards are best for a balance transfer, which you pay a little every month on that balance while not using the card for anything else.
• Rewards: Some are better than others! I personally prefer the cash back cards as its real money in your pocket, not a certificate for junk. I tried a Borders card for a short while, and the gift certificates you get back usually entice you to buy more than what the certificate allows. The certificates are not cash refundable (but for some reason they keep giving me cash back) so make sure you get purchases as close to the limit, otherwise that $500 you spent to get a $5 certificate was in vain!

The credit companies make a killing from the merchant every time you use a card (per transaction and a percent of the total), so this is how they afford to give you money back. There is almost no reason to use cash these days.

• http://www.deals2buy.com – A great list of random tech and personal things.
• http://www.edealinfo.com – Listing site
• http://www.edeals2day.com – Listing site
• http://dealnews.com – This site is more of a highlight of what they think are great deals in certain categories
• http://www.fatwallet.com – This site tracks all kinds of discounts, alot of them are user submitted. They also have store ratings.
• http://www.slickdeals.net – A shorter list of a few nice deals per day

The first three sites are great at finding the amazingly cheap deals from computer vendors on laptops and tower PC’s.

So if your shopping for something particular, do a quick search on these sites to see if there is a discount somewhere. If that fails, check amazon.com and buy.com for a low price.

There are also alot of price tracking websites, they work well if you know exactly the item you are looking for, like a model number or name. Some of these are:

• http://www.pricegrabber.com
• http://www.mysimon.com
• http://www.bizrate.com
• http://www.pricewatch.com – More for technology items

In the next article I’ll shed some light on how to see if a store is trustworthy or not. A lot of the deals you will find might be on a site you have never heard of, so its best to check out the retailer and their ratings to make sure you are safe.